Taiwan Defense Chief Warns China Military Buildup Creates Urgent Security Risk

Taiwan's Defense Minister says China's ongoing military expansion represents a serious and immediate threat to the island nation. He emphasized the need for strong deterrence measures to make any potential Chinese attack too costly to attempt.

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo warned Friday that China’s relentless military expansion creates an urgent security threat, emphasizing that robust deterrence measures are essential to prevent Beijing from launching an attack.

Koo’s comments came after U.S. intelligence officials reported Wednesday that China currently has no plans to invade Taiwan by 2027 and prefers to gain control of the island through non-military means. However, the defense minister stressed that Beijing has not abandoned the possibility of using military force.

China has intensified its pressure campaign against Taiwan through regular military exercises, viewing the self-governing island as part of its territory. Taiwan’s democratically chosen leadership firmly rejects Beijing’s territorial claims.

Addressing the American intelligence assessment, Koo emphasized that China continues its military buildup without reduction in defense spending.

“So its military expansion, and the threat it poses to us, remain very serious,” he told reporters at parliament.

“We need to make it feel that any plan to attack Taiwan would carry a high degree of risk: in other words, to make its assessment of a successful invasion very low.”

The defense minister warned that if China’s military growth continues while Taiwan fails to strengthen its own defense systems, the probability of an attack would increase.

“On the other hand, if our defence capabilities continue to improve and our deterrence grows stronger, then its calculation regarding an attack on Taiwan will decrease. That would have the effect of pushing back such a date again and again.”

Beijing’s foreign ministry responded Thursday by calling Taiwan a domestic matter and urging the United States to “stop hyping up the ‘China threat’ theory.”

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has put forward a $40 billion defense spending increase, though legislative approval has been delayed. Opposition lawmakers, who hold a parliamentary majority, argue the proposals lack specificity and refuse to approve “blank cheques.”

President Lai toured Taiwan’s newly built domestic submarine Thursday, which remains in testing phases, along with one of the island’s two operational submarines purchased from the Netherlands during the 1980s.

Koo reported that upgrades have been completed on one Dutch-manufactured submarine, with the second vessel’s modernization scheduled to finish by year’s end.

“These two submarines will significantly enhance our combat capabilities,” he said.